IVAN KOŽARIĆ
FREEDOM IS A RARE
BIRD
Haus der Kunst
Prinzregentenstraße 1 - Munich
20/6/2013 -
22/9/2013
"I'm not an artist but I am, nevertheless, a bad sculptor.
Through my search, I came to the point where I can say that I am on the trail to
discover art, and I am content with that."
(Ivan Kožarić)
Ivan Kožarić
(born in 1921 in Petrinja, lives and works in Zagreb) completed his studies at
the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb in the late 1940s. He has since become one of
the most influential postwar avant-garde artists in what was once Yugoslavia.
"Freedom is a Rare Bird" represents six decades of his complex artistic oeuvre
and is the most comprehensive survey exhibition to date to be devoted to the
sculptor outside of his native Croatia.
"Haus der Kunst is privileged to
present a landmark exhibition that represents the museum's interest to present
robust examinations of some of the most significant, but little known artistic
figures whose works have contributed to a broad reappraisal of important
features in the history of contemporary art." (Okwui Enwezor)
Kožarić has
always kept the character of his works open. He reworks earlier pieces,
reprocesses earlier ideas, and intentionally dates works inaccurately or
incorrectly. To do justice to this openness, the exhibition is organized
according to thematic connections within his work, rather than to chronology,
style, or development.
The central theme of the sculptures from the 1950s is
the human figure, of which there are numerous depictions including torsos,
heads, and portraits. At the same time, Kožarić also experimented with abstract
shapes and ideas, which were to become more important in later years in pieces
like "Osjećaj cjeline" (Feeling of Wholeness, 1953/54). In his work, Kožarić
intuitively challenged the distinctions between the figurative and the abstract
rejceting the necessity of any exclusive determination.
At the end of 1959,
Kožarić spent six months in Paris, where he created the sculpture "Unutarnje
oči" (Inner Eyes, 1959), an oval face out of which two rods reach toward the
viewer like eyes. This sculpture introduced the artist's increasing
preoccupation with 1negative volume and an inward directed view. Following his
return in 1960, Kožarić joined Gorgona, an avant-garde group that experimented
with the absurd, the immaterial, and metaphysical irony. In accordance to their
belief that artistic activity must not be manifested in an artwork, the Gorgona
members' products and approaches were often ephemeral: Meetings, conferences,
walks, letters and thoughts of the month, as well as self-organized and funded
exhibitions. This aligns them closely with Conceptual Art.
The group
published an "anti-magazine", whose concept was the pure artist's book. The
publication had a pioneering role internationally. Dieter Roth, Harold Pinter,
and Victor Vasarely each designed an issue; contributions by Robert Rauschenberg
and Yves Klein were planned but never realized.
Created during Kožarić's
Gorgona phase, the "Oblici prostora" (Shapes of Space) were designed as replicas
of urban cavities and voids – negative volumes that were transformed into
positive forms. In 1963, Kožarić wrote, "Plaster casts should be made of ... the
interiors of several important cars, the interior of bed- sitters, trees, the
interior of a park, etc., the interiors of all-important cavities in our city".
Conversely, the result – largely abstract, rounded shapes – is the sculptural
realization of the idea of emptiness.
The members of Gorgona placed more
value on the idea of an artwork's execution than on the work as a traditional
form. With his 1960 sketch "Neobični projekt – Rezanje Sljemena" (Unusual
Project – Cutting Sljeme), Kožarić proposed to cut off the summit of a mountain
near Zagreb. The project, which today would be considered an early example of
Land Art, existed as an overpainted photograph and as a model-scale sculpture.
During the 1970s, Kožarić continued the study of the urban space; the proposals
for monumental interventions also only exist as sketches, mostly as ove-painted
photographs. With "Nazovi je kako hoćes" (Call Her What You Want, 1971), he
subverts notions of monumentality and representation. Instead of embellishing a
traffic island, the plastic obstructed the road like an abstract giant. The
artist's projects for the urban environment represent the heart of the
exhibition.
Kožarić's text sketches are usually short, handwritten remarks,
and are expressions of the artist's momentary spiritual and creative state of
mind ("God, You Are Big! 01/30/2000"). They often display productive
self-contradiction, as well as a questioning of his own position ("I see that,
were I to work more, I could create something good, something substantial. That
scares me! I. K. 87").
In 1971, Kožarić decided to paint his entire studio
gold, including the door, the floor, his shoes, a matchbox, a cabinet, and
sculptures from his different creative periods. This action negated the
artworks' immutability and was an affirmative gesture towards all of the other
objects: things previously considered worthless could be transformed into art at
any moment, and, conversely, art's value could always be questioned.
With
his skepticism of the rules and hierarchies in viewing art, Kožarić literally
overturned everything considered a given in art history. For the 1976 Venice
Biennale, he arranged a collection of his major sculptures so they appeared
carelessly stacked ("Hrpa", or Heaps). Kožarić later explained that he developed
"Hrpa" out of the confidence that he would be able to discard everything he had
created up to that point, and make even better sculptures in the future. The
idea for "Hrpa" first emerges in the early 1970s by the work "Pinkleci"
(Bundles), which were filled with works and objects from the artist’s studio – a
metaphor for embarking on new beginnings and leaving things behind. The
exhibition represents the clustering motif with assemblages from the late 1970s,
for which Kožarić primarily used everyday objects.
For an exhibition in late
1993/early 1994 at a gallery in Zagreb, Kožarić moved the contents of his entire
studio into the gallery, where he worked for the exhibition period. This studio
was presented at documenta 11 in 2002. Since 2007, when the City of Zagreb
acquired the studio and entrusted it to the Museum of Contemporary Art in
Zagreb, Kožarić has initiated several transformations of the space, which
contains approximately 6,000 works. About 360 works from the Kožarić studio will
be presented in the exhibition, supplemented by loans from major public and
private collections.
Because Kožarić repeatedly questions his achievements
and remains unbiased towards his own work, the term 'freedom' frequently appears
in descriptions of his works. The exhibition title itself refers to a statement
the artist made in 2012. It was not a contradiction when, in 1976, at the
"Office for the Deprivation of Freedom, Address and City Unknown" he made the
request that "this monster somehow be gently removed" from him. The exhibition's
opening coincides with Croatia's planned accession to the EU.
"Ivan
Kozaric. Freedom Is a Rare Bird" was organized by Haus der Kunst in cooperation
with the Museum of Contemporary Art Zagreb. The catalogue is published in
English and German by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, edited by Patrizia
Dander and Radmila Iva Janković; with a foreword by Okwui Enwezor, a preface by
Snježana Pintarić, new essays by Patrizia Dander, Radmila Iva Janković and Marco
Scotini, rereleased texts by Bart De Baere, Ješa Denegri, Antun Maračić, Davor
Matićević, Radoslav Putar, and two interviews conducted by Zdenko Rus and Ivica
Župan in 1971 and 1992.
Catalogue in English and German, published by
Walther König, edited by Patrizia Dander and Radmila Iva Janković; foreword by
Okwui Enwezor, preface by Snježana Pintarić; new contributions by Patrizia
Dander, Radmila Iva Janković and Marco Scotini; re-published texts by Bart De
Baere, Ješa Denegri, Antun Maračić, Davor Matićević, Radoslav Putar, and two
interviews with the artist conducted by Zdenko Rus, 1971 and Ivica Župan, 1992
Image: Linije, 1972, Line, gouache on paper, 84 x 60 cm. Museum of
Contemporary Art Zagreb - MSU Zagreb. Courtesy Ivan Kožarić. Photo: Filip Zima /
Foto: Filip Zima
